AJ Dybantsa wants your phone number
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Dybantsa wants your data. Photo: Nolan Pascu/NBAE via Getty Images
You can text the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, and someone on his team will see it. He might even text back.
Why it matters: Wizards rookie AJ Dybantsa has a rare opportunity to capitalize on a new level of fame.
- He's exploring new ways to give fans the access they crave.
Zoom out: Dybantsa may be an NBA rookie, but he's hardly new to building his brand.
- In the name, image and likeness era, the 19-year-old has been flexing his marketing savvy for years.
- His YouTube channel publishes documentary-style vlogs from his workouts and travels. His LinkedIn posts read like diary entries.
- Last year at Brigham Young University, he added a more direct line to fans: texting.
State of play: Dybantsa has 1.2 million Instagram followers and more than 500,000 on TikTok.
- But Community, an SMS marketing platform, offers something social media doesn't: a way to reach fans without relying on an algorithm.
- It lets his team build a database of phone numbers and demographic information from fans who opt in.
How it works: I texted Dybantsa's number and immediately heard back.
- "What's up, it's AJ," the message began. "Make sure you click the link to add yourself to my Community so I can respond to you!"
- Another message teased a Nike shoe giveaway and instructed me to save Dybantsa as a contact.
😭 Yes, but: I texted AJ's Community line a couple of times. He never responded.
- Axios' attempts to reach Dybantsa for comment weren't returned.
Matthew Perl, the head of sports, media and entertainment for Community, tells Axios that fan messages land in an inbox that Dybantsa and his team can monitor and respond to.
- Dybantsa was particularly interested in hearing from teenage fans about what they wanted to see him post, Perl tells Axios.
By the numbers: As of this summer, Dybantsa had more than 17,000 members in his channel, according to a case study from Community.
- Nearly a third responded when he invited them to text Q&A, and more than 40% clicked links to giveaways.
- His hurricane relief campaign for Jamaica raised more than $30,000.
Between the lines: Michael Lewis, a professor at Emory who specializes in sports marketing, tells Axios that athletes increasingly need to "own your own brand" and "own your own media."
Yes, but: The access only works if it tells a success story.
🐐 Lewis points to Michael Jordan as the father of sports marketing.
- Jordan won on the court, "and then the marketing sort of followed that," Lewis said. "When we lead with the marketing, it leads to problems."
The bottom line: Dybantsa's marketing game is strong. Now he has to prove himself on the court.